


Change

by MozillaVulpix



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Heterochromia Hinata, Post-Neo World Program (Dangan Ronpa), Self-Indulgent, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:27:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22824049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MozillaVulpix/pseuds/MozillaVulpix
Summary: That day when you wake up and suddenly realise you're a different person to what you used to be.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 57





	Change

Change was a strange thing. Sometimes it happened slowly, gradually, so subtle that you didn't realise you'd become a different person until you reflected on it a few months later. And sometimes it happened quickly, abruptly and violently. Like when you signed up for experimental brain surgery to artificially give you talent. It could be strange and frightening, change. 

But sometimes, it was welcome. 

It happened that morning, when the person named Hajime Hinata woke up feeling content for the first time he could remember since exiting the botched rehabilitation program. Not necessarily good, or happy, or excited, but...content. It was that feeling of slight optimism to start up the day that he hadn't realised had been lacking from his situation until he remembered what it felt like. By itself, it wasn't something worth noticing, or being alarmed about. His first priority was getting through whatever the day held for him. 

He yawned, slowly walking to the large makeshift table the eight of them had been using for meals every morning. 

"Good morning," Hajime waved out of habit, tiredness still in his eyes. The others were already there in similar states of fatigue. 

But as they turned to greet him, their expressions slowly changed from the expected friendly greeting to a strange reaction. Not of fear, not of concern, but a puzzled look Hajime would analyse as a cross between surprise and mild confusion. They had all seen something unusual, he realised. 

"What's wrong?" 

It was Sonia who put it together first. As the realisation sunk in, she gasped and pointed to him. 

"Hajime! Your eyes!" 

"...what about my eyes?" 

"Look!" 

With a strange urgency, she beckoned for him to come to the bathroom. As they arrived at the room's mirror, she pushed him towards it, and Hajime finally understood the origin of their strange expressions. 

His eyes had changed overnight – or at least one of them had. The right eye had turned from red to green – a surprisingly vivid green, but much closer to his eye colour before the Kamukura Project turned them both bloodred. 

He blinked, once, twice. It was still green. 

He stared at his reflection for a long while. How were you supposed to react to having a sudden drastic change in appearance? Shock? Fear? Excitement? He was aware it was probably a natural reaction to have a reaction, but the only emotion he felt was...an unsurprised acceptance. 

"...huh. So that happened." 

It was like he knew it was going to happen to him, although the concept had never even crossed his mind until that moment. He supposed it should have been unsettling, but looking at the now mismatched eyes, something about it seemed natural. Familiar. Like this was how he was supposed to be. 

In the corner of his eye, he noticed that the others had arrived, crowding the mirror with their much more excited faces. 

"Whoa, what the hell!" Kazuichi exclaimed. "They're different colours now!" 

"It's just his eyes, Kazuichi," said Fuyuhiko, standing a little bit to the distance. "It's not such a big deal. You're acting like he sprouted an extra head or something." 

Fuyuhiko's right eye was still gone, the dragon-patterned patch covering the worst of the damage. It was still a sensitive subject for him. 

"I mean, it doesn't matter what he looks like," Akane jumped in, to-the-point as usual. "Hajime's still Hajime, right?" 

"I wonder..." 

Makoto Naegi was also staring at the mirror, deep in thought. "Has it got something to do with your personality?" 

"My personality?" Hajime abruptly came back into the present. 

Makoto tried to explain. "When you were Hajime, your eyes were green. When you became Izuru, your eyes were red. Maybe one of them changing back to green is because your personality is more like Hajime." 

"Don't be stupid," Fuyuhiko scoffed. "Personality's got nothing to do with what your eyes look like. He got experimented on. It's not like he just decided one day he wanted his eyes to be red." 

But Makoto shook his head. "It doesn't sound like it makes any sense, but it's not the first time I've seen something like it. I mean...when Toko changes personalities, her eyes change, too." 

"-wait," Byakuya Togami interrupted, brought into a rare state of surprise. "You can see that, too?" 

"Of course we can all see it, Togami." Kyoko Kirigiri smiled. "What did you think it was? A hallucination?" 

"I would rather say it was more like a personal nightmare." 

But the detective still grinned. "I think she'd be happy to know you see her as a nightmare personal to you." 

Byakuya scowled. 

"...shut up." 

While this was going on, Hajime still stood, staring at his reflection. 

"So, does this mean you're half-and-half?" Kazuichi asked. "Half Hinata, and half Kamukura?" 

A curious question. It was the answer that made the most sense to explain his unusual appearance, but as Hajime searched the sensation in his gut, into what he felt, the answer naturally came to him. 

He slowly shook his head. 

"No, it's not going to be that simple," he answered. "I'm still Hajime Hinata – that's not going to change. And I'm still going to be Izuru Kamukura, no matter what choices I make. The difference is...who I am now...I'm the one who decided to live as Hajime Hinata." 

"As opposed to Kamukura?" 

"As opposed to...whatever I thought of myself beforehand," Hajime replied. "I knew what my name and identity were before I was Kamukura. They didn't erase all traces of it, and it wasn't exactly hidden. I just didn't care." 

"But now you do?" Sonia asked. 

Hajime tilted his head quizzingly in front of the mirror, as if testing his expressions. "I think I'd rather be Hajime Hinata than some old guy who cared a bit too much about talent. Or a high school's science experiment. Or the bringer of Hope, or Despair, or whatever people wanted to see me as." 

"But you were a Reserve Course student..." Kazuichi muttered. "Hajime Hinata, that is. You would choose to want to be that?" 

"I was a Reserve Course student. And I still am, technically," Hajime explained. "But I'm okay with that. I'm not going to erase my past self to create my future self. I'm taking all of it, the good and the bad. That's how I'm going to live." 

In the background, Makoto was nodding with pride. 

"I decided it." Hajime realised. "I just decided. Last night, today, I'm not sure when. I decided this was what I wanted to be, and that's why I look the way I do now." 

"That's why your eye changed," Fuyuhiko understood. "To what it used to look like as Hajime..." 

"Does that mean..." Kyoko breathed. "Does that mean you undid what Hope's Peak Academy did to you?" 

But Hajime stared at his green eye, how the pattern of the iris shifted, expanded and contracted, how it almost seemed to glow – just like the red one. "Not exactly," he replied. "Complex brain surgery can't exactly be undone by force of will alone. But...it's mine now. That's what matters." 

And with that Hajime Hinata stood up and walked away from his reflection, the realisation dawning on him all the while. 

The realisation that he'd physically, irreversibly changed. 

And that maybe...he was okay with seeing that through.

**Author's Note:**

> Just me being self-indulgent and wanting to write out my headcanons, I guess. Split personality Hajime/Izuru is neat in its own way, but I think this is cooler. Not the best-written, I know, but if I wait until it's perfect to publish it it'll never come out.


End file.
